Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
PALIN PRESS CONFERENCE
TIF yields press conference bit to Sarah Palin [real]; Alec Baldwin cameo
— Some good lines from Tina Fey’s Sarah Palin here, though, unlike her previous appearances, there aren’t any classic one-liners here.
— Funny bit with Tina’s Palin taking the time to entertain the press with “some fancy pageant walkin’”.
— And here we have the heavily-hyped Sarah Palin cameo, which I remember dreading back when it was originally announced before this episode aired.
— A pretty funny Mark Wahlberg walk-on, looking for Andy Samberg after the famous sketch Andy did about him in the preceding episode.
— The cameos continue, as we now we get a surprise Alec Baldwin cameo (back in the days when you could still say “a surprise Alec Baldwin cameo”).
— Good bit with Alec mistaking the real Sarah Palin for Tina while badmouthing Palin.
— I love Tina’s panicked delivery of “Byeeee!” when hearing the real Palin is there.
— A blink-and-miss-it visual of Tina and Palin both being onscreen together as they pass by each other, which I’m guessing disappointed some viewers who were expecting more interaction between the two. I personally say it’s probably for the best that this is the closest to an onscreen interaction we got between them. Plus, SNL has a very hit-and-miss track record with their “celebrity meets their impersonator” pieces.
STARS: ***½
MONOLOGUE
host tells how he prepared to portray George W. Bush; Oliver Stone cameo
— Very lame opening joke where the movie about a prominent political figure that Josh Brolin mentions he was recently in turns out to be No Country For Old Men based on John McCain.
— An okay though very basic bit with Josh breaking down how to do a Bush impression.
— A sudden Oliver Stone cameo, which unfortunately prevents this from being the third consecutive episode with a real monologue that only involves the host. The Oliver Stone cameo is brief enough, though, that this can still be mostly considered a host-only monologue.
STARS: ***
MACGRUBER
unexpected stock portfolio collapse becomes a distraction to MacGruber
— Good to see a MacGruber runner relating to the stock market crash.
— A big laugh from the obligatory end-of-sketch explosion cutting off MacGruber’s “What the f–” reaction to seeing the current state of his stocks.
STARS: ****
SURPRISE
at a restaurant, surprise-loving Sue spoils (host)’s marriage proposal
— This character of Kristen’s has officially become recurring.
— If you remember, I didn’t care for the first installment of this sketch when I reviewed it. And if my memory of how the subsequent installments of this sketch goes serves correct, I’m sure I’ll care even less for them.
— Yep. I’m now a few minutes into this sketch, and I haven’t been caring for it AT ALL. Just feels like a pale imitation of the already-overrated-to-me first installment of this sketch.
— (*groan*) Here we have yet another display of Fred’s classic Asian stereotype routine, this time complete with the ol’-fashioned “mispronouncing ‘r’s and ‘l’s” trait.
— The bit with Kristen’s Sue smashing a glass over her head to keep herself quiet, which actually made me laugh a lot in the first installment of this sketch, was pulled off too awkwardly tonight.
— We even get a repeat of the gag from the first installment where Sue jumps through a window multiple times, which, much like the glass-smashing-over-the-head bit, came off even less funnier in this second installment.
STARS: *
MACGRUBER
mugging takes priority over escape from unstable mafia hideout
— That theme song lyric about toilet paper being a luxury for the now-broke MacGruber hits a little too close to home during our current times in 2020.
— I love MacGruber smashing a beer bottle in half to threaten his two assistants to finally give him their watches.
STARS: ****
THE SUZE ORMAN SHOW
destitute (host) receives unhelpful advice from Suze Orman (KRW)
— SNL is gradually turning into The Kristen Wiig Show as we speak.
— Fitting to do this sketch during the financial crisis going on at the time.
— Odd coincidence: all three times a Suze Orman sketch has appeared by this point of SNL’s run, it was in an episode that also had a MacGruber runner (the Jonah Hill and Shia LaBeouf episodes from the preceding season, and now tonight’s episode).
— As usual, Kristen’s portrayal of Suze Orman is very fun, as are all of her line deliveries.
— Funny lines from Josh about how bad his life is now that he’s broke, though these lines feel like a variation of the lines Jason previously said as a barrel-wearing Richard Fuld about how bad his life is now that he’s broke, in an earlier Weekend Update from this season.
— A good laugh from the Master Pussies book that Kristen’s Orman shows.
STARS: ***½
WAHLBERG’S CONFRONTATION
in criticizing ANS’s impression of him, Mark Wahlberg [real] confirms it
— And here we have our obligatory confrontation between Mark Wahlberg and Andy.
— Not only is this the “celebrity meets their impersonator” piece that I basically thanked SNL for refraining from doing with Tina Fey and Sarah Palin earlier tonight, but this is also a “celebrity claims they’re nothing like their impersonator’s impression of them, then goes on to act exactly like their impersonator’s impression of them” piece. Meh.
— Even for a “celebrity claims they’re nothing like their impersonator’s impression of them, then goes on to act exactly like their impersonator’s impression of them” piece, this feels lazily executed.
— I do at least like the touch of how, after telling Josh “Say hi to your mutha for me, alright?”, Wahlberg adds in “…and to your stepmutha”, a reference to the fact that Josh’s stepmother is Barbra Streisand.
STARS: **
I’M NO ANGEL
pregnant barfly (AMP) embodies Gregg Allman’s (WLF) perfume
— Ah, a very memorable Amy Poehler sketch.
— A great way to get mileage out of Amy’s real-life pregnancy.
— I’m always interested in dialogue-less sketches (or mostly dialogue-less, in this case).
— The catchy “I’m No Angel” song playing is adding to the entertainment of all the very funny stuff happening onscreen.
— An odd minor thing I’ve always noticed Casey doing in the background of this sketch: after her jealous waitress character storms off, Casey seems kinda lost on where she’s supposed to go, then she strangely ducks behind the bar counter, where we can no longer see her, and then………she just stays under the bar counter? Why does she do that? And does she seriously stay hidden under that bar counter for the whole remainder of the sketch? I again ask, why?
— I like this exchange between Josh and Amy: “When’s your baby due?” Amy: “Yesterday.” Josh: (*looks into the camera with a sleazy smile*) “PERFECT.”
— I remember, back when this episode originally aired, some people in an online live discussion thread for this episode wondered if Josh’s chair breaking and him falling onto the floor after a pregnant Amy gets off of his lap was a real blooper. It seems obvious to me that that was an intentional part of this sketch. (Plus, why else would the camera hold on Josh just sitting there doing nothing for a few seconds before his chair breaks?)
— Very funny walk-on at the end from Will as Gregg Allman, capping this sketch off really well.
STARS: ****½
MACGRUBER
MacGruber’s anal ping-pong ball launch is a desperate money-raising act
— I love the haggard, destitute state MacGruber is now in.
— The whole bit with the ping-pong ball trick MacGruber does is absolutely HILARIOUS. One of the funniest things I’ve ever seen in a MacGruber short, which is saying something.
— Kristen’s disturbed facial expression after MacGruber’s ping-pong ball trick is absolutely perfect (the last above screencap for this short).
STARS: *****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Chasing Pavements”
WEEKEND UPDATE
presidential candidate Tim Calhoun extends his harebrained hustings
Jean K. Jean offers his perspective on European issues of the day
after Sarah Palin [real] demurs, AMP performs the prospective veep’s rap
— TIM CALHOUN! Sadly, this ends up being his final appearance, despite Will still remaining on SNL for over a season-and-a-half after this episode.
— Will-as-Calhoun’s delivery of “Boo!” when revealing that’s his middle name had me howling.
— I love Calhoun’s “blind Pole” bit, especially his line about how it helps that she, the “blind Pole”, has no sense of smell.
— Calhoun’s overall commentary killed as always. I’m gonna miss the hell out of this character. For me, he knocked it out of the park in every single appearance. One of the consistently funniest recurring characters in SNL history.
— I continue to find Jean K. Jean’s Update commentaries to be pretty good, and carried by Kenan’s charm. I particularly like his comments about Carla Bruni.
— A second Sarah Palin appearance tonight.
— Yes! Here we have Amy’s legendary Sarah Palin rap, one of my absolute favorite things that both Amy and SNL in general have ever done.
— Not only are we getting fantastic comical rapping and lyrics from Amy, but they’re being accompanied by some awesome visuals, such as Fred and Andy as the Eskimos, Jason as a dancing, snowmachine outfit-wearing Todd Palin, and a “mother-humpin’” moose (that’s Bobby inside that costume, by the way…and if you look closely through the eyes of the costume, you can even see Bobby’s distinctive eyes and eyebrows) getting shot by Amy.
— Overall, an absolutely classic Palin rap from Amy. And the fact that she did all of this while THIS far into her pregnancy (she gives birth the following Saturday), AND in the same episode she did that I’m No Angel sketch, is incredible, and speaks volumes of her commitment as a performer and what a trouper she is.
STARS: ****
FART FACE
businessmen Carl (WLF), Jerry (BIH), Jim (host) fling “fart face” epithet
— Oh, here comes a sketch that was fairly notorious back in these days. This sketch was infamous for both focusing on such a dumb, immature subject matter AND bombing horribly with both the audience and general SNL fans. Bill would appear on a talk show a month or so after this episode’s original airing (I can’t remember which talk show it was, but I want to say Letterman), and he talked about how awkward and self-conscious he felt performing this sketch to a dead audience, especially since he was aware that this episode was being watched by a higher number of people than usual, due to Sarah Palin’s heavily-hyped guest appearance (this was one of the highest-rated SNL episodes ever at the time). All that being said about this sketch, I fully disclose that I’ve always LOVED this sketch, and will defend it to the grave. This sketch has always been one of my biggest SNL guilty pleasures, so much so, that I can recite pretty much the entire sketch by heart.
— As I always say, the rare pairing of Will and Bill is always a treat, and is a pairing SNL should’ve done more often.
— The ridiculousness of Josh’s mature businessman character plugging his ears like a child so he can’t hear Will and Bill’s secret conversation is funny.
— I love the following exchange, regarding Josh’s continued use of the nickname “Fart Face” for Will’s Carl character: Bill: “If you’ve spent any time with Carl, you’d know his face does not smell of farts…but rather a face.” Josh: “Odor-wise, I’d agree, but I’m talking about appearance. See, I believe that if a fart did have a face, it would look EXACTLY like Fart Face.” Will: “How dare you!”
— The way such a ridiculously immature concept is being performed so dead-seriously by Will, Bill, and Josh is making this sketch work so well.
— Yet another great exchange: Josh: “You served me the Kool-Aid, Jerry, I just drank it.” Bill: “Well, spit it out!” Josh: “No way. I don’t wanna stain Fart Face’s rug.” Will: “Jim, you know full well that the Kool-Aid we’re referring to is metaphorical! And spitting it out will not damage anything in this office!”
— Hilarious turn with Will and Bill suddenly pulling a “fart face turnaround” on Josh.
— I am absolutely loving how insanely intense this is now getting, especially Will’s over-the-top screaming during his and Bill’s taunting of Josh. An unleashed Will Forte ranting and raving like a madman NEVER fails.
— Hmm, the audience isn’t quite as dead during this sketch as I had remembered, though their laughter is very tepid, especially compared to how much I’m busting a gut during this sketch.
— Love the ending.
— Overall, this sketch continues to be one of my favorite SNL guilty pleasures. (I feel a little less guilty about it nowadays, after the sketch’s notoriety seems to have gradually been forgotten over the years, but I still feel guilty for the rating I’m about to give this sketch, a rating that I’m sure will raise some eyebrows). I love this sketch SO much.
STARS: *****
NARC SCHOOL
(host), (KRW), (WLF), every other student is actually a cop
— I remember that, back when this originally aired, I felt the melody of this sketch’s theme song sounded awfully similar to the melody of the MacGruber theme songs, but I don’t hear it quite as much now, 12 years later.
— I love Will’s delivery of “Are you guuyys talking druuuuuuuugs?”
— The narcs’ bad attempts to pass themselves off as teen students are pretty funny.
— Darrell (who I’m starting to forget is still on the show this season) makes his ONLY appearance of the night in a very brief, non-impression, almost-pointless role. He’s coming off SO awkward in this role that there’s almost a “So bad, it’s good” quality to his performance.
STARS: ***
READITRADE.COM
ReadiTrade.com is the online financial tool of choice for panic sellers
— Tonight’s episode continues to get TONS of topical mileage out of the financial crisis going on. That makes this episode an interesting time capsule in hindsight.
— When Jason’s spokesman character is listing off things you can sell at ReadiTrade.com, I got a laugh from him saying “sell drugs” in a discreet, whispery voice.
— A funny bit where, when we’re being shown how easy it is to use the ReadiTrade.com website, the ReadiTrade website page on Kenan’s laptop is just a simplistic page that has the word “SELL” written in big letters.
— Even though it wasn’t that funny in itself, something about Fred’s freeze-framed yell of “WHYYYYYYYYY?!?” cracked me up.
— Overall, despite the above highlights, I found this commercial as a whole to be a tad forgettable.
STARS: **½
NEW YORK UNDERGROUND
Trevor Dix (BIH) overhypes a ho-hum musician (FRA)
— Well…THIS is certainly different for this SNL era.
— I absolutely love Bill’s delivery and voice in this.
— Great photos of various fictional bands (the one in the third above screencap for this sketch includes yet another sighting of a bearded then-writer Colin Jost, and I believe our very first onscreen John Mulaney SNL sighting).
— Even though Fred’s portions of this short almost feel like an early preview of the annoying, hard-to-figure, self-indulgent shtick that would dominate the later years of his SNL tenure, it’s working for me in the unique, pre-taped format of this particular short. Also, this short, especially with the involvement of both Bill and Fred, feels kinda like a precursor to “Documentary Now”. Fred would later have an even better “Documentary Now” precursor on SNL, with the Ian Rubbish pre-tape he does in his final season.
— Bill, when making pretentious analogies in regards to how much Fred’s singing moves us: “We’re an obese 15-year-old seeing ourselves naked for the first time.”
— I found this overall piece to be fairly solid, and a fun change of pace for this SNL era. I wonder if they originally intended this to become a recurring segment. We end up never seeing this return.
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Cold Shoulder”
FALL FOLIAGE
(host) can’t interest former co-workers in a tour of the fall foliage
— Another office sketch tonight. I almost wonder if this is the same set from the Fart Face sketch.
— Speaking of the Fart Face sketch, this Fall Foliage sketch is something else that I remember kinda bombing with the audience (though this never gained the notoriety of Fart Face), at least the first half of the sketch.
— A big night for Will. He’s appeared in almost EVERY SINGLE SEGMENT tonight, even including a photo in the New York Underground piece. This just may be the busiest night he’s ever had during his entire SNL tenure.
— I’m liking the subtly-creepy-but-jovial nature of Josh’s character, and Josh is performing this well.
— Hmm, a fairly interesting recurring bit throughout this sketch, with the employees at the table each answering “No” one by one.
— Good turn after Josh leaves, where it’s revealed that he’s just some random nut who last worked at this company 13 years ago and just shows up every fall. This turn has awoken the dead audience.
— When Bobby asks “And he just comes back every fall?”, I love Will’s delivery of his answer: “Yyyyyyup.” A funny little moment that caps off Will’s strong and very busy night in this episode.
— The whole “He allowed me to be raped” part with a deadpan Kenan probably won’t sit well with some people, especially nowadays, but I admit to getting laughs from it.
STARS: ***
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— This episode contained an impressive number of pieces that I find fantastic (the MacGruber short with the ping-pong ball trick, I’m No Angel, Tim Calhoun, Amy Poehler’s Sarah Palin rap, Fart Face), though I’d say the episode as a whole was just pretty good, due to the number of average or weak pieces that made up the rest of the episode. Still not much to complain about, though.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Anne Hathaway)
a slight step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Jon Hamm makes his hosting debut
Because the ratings of this episode were so huge, Adele has long credited Lorne Michaels for her success in the U.S.
Tina didn’t want to do a “Patty Duke” thing with Sarah, but spoke highly of her doing press after this. Sarah did the same of her and Amy in her book. At some point, Sarah no longer started feeling that way..
I really love the New York Underground sketch. It feels very S10-ish and I wish they did more pieces in that vein on the show. SNL always does mockumentary-ish stuff well, and I’m a sucker for hard-to-figure indulgent Fred.
Just when I thought I was crazy for thinking Forte at times facially resembles Kraftwerk’s Florian Schneider I see they use him to make a reference to one of their most famous albums https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man-Machine
The Amy rap segment is just so amazing. I always lose it and so does the audience when she shoots the moose and shouts “Now you’re dead! Because I’m an animal! And I’m bigger than you!”
Josh Brolin kind of looks a lot like Sarah Palin’s husband, which I’m surprised they didn’t utilize for any sketches.
This episode takes a long time to get going after the opening–the monologue is nothing special and I don’t really like the two Wiig showcases early in the show’s run. The Wahlberg cameo is, as you point out, extremely lazy–there’s almost no joke other than Wahlberg doing the same thing Samberg did. But we get a good Update, some oddball stuff, and the polarizing but almost hypnotic fart face sketch.
I do applaud whoever booked this show because while things start off pretty sane if not overly interesting, things get really oddball and offbeat as the episode goes on. With the expected high ratings, this would be the perfect episode for easy recurring characters and maybe an accessible Digital Short.
Of all the people they could’ve gotten to make a cameo, why Oliver Stone? Did he have a movie coming out?
@Jared DiCarlo, Stone had directed W, the film Brolin was promoting. It’s very jarring seeing him on SNL (especially comparing this to the cold open SNL did spoofing him in ’91 or ’92), especially with his more recent trajectory.
W. was released in theaters that weekend, which also starred Josh Brolin.
Oh, never mind then.
I thought Josh Brolin looked like Joe Piscopo in that wig during the Suze Orman Show sketch.
He was also spoofed in the season 25 Jamie Foxx episode (first one of the 2000s), in which Will Ferrell portrayed him (to promote the then-recent “Any Given Sunday”), and the monologue mainly consisted of the joke that he was “directing” it, and gave Foxx advice on how to deliver it.
I don’t even feel guilty about loving the Fart Face sketch. It’s so quintessentially Will Forte that I can’t help but like it. I admit I didn’t think it was THAT funny when I first saw it but Brolin plugging his ears like a child and Forte and Hader commiting 100% to losing their shit gets me every time I watch it. There are quite a few articles about Hader claiming it to be the worst sketch he’s been involved in (though he performs extremely well in it):
https://www.vulture.com/2015/02/bill-hader-will-forte-fart-face.html
I love that Bill and Will thought it had no chance in hell but Lorne kept pushing it through. I strongly suspect that despite his stoic nature Lorne has an absurdist sense of humour, since he’s always had a soft spot for Will’s bizarro shenanigans and he did produce Kids In The Hall after all. It’s odd to think I have the same sense of humour as Lorne Michaels…
The superior of the two Brolin episodes, although his second one has one of my favorite so bad it’s good moments when Brolin attempts an impression of then Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen.
We get an amazing performance by Adele, still battling stage fright at this point, her sense of relief and accomplishment after performing Chasing Pavements was a great live tv moment.
I believe it’s Mulaney, although it might be Jost who told an anecdote on Late Night w/ Seth about doing the band photo for Rowboat.
This episode played a small but arguably significant role for a different tv show and its host. When this aired one of the reviews of it that gained some media traction was one by Greg Gutfeld, then host of Fox News’s RedEye, which had recently been moved from 2 am to 3 am ET to make room for a second same night rerun of the O’Reilly Factor. During Gutfeld’s “Greg-alogue” segment on Tuesday the 21st he expressed his confusion over why when “they have the hopeful next vice president on their show and they decide to air crap like a guy shooting a ping pong ball out his ass and a skit which is just people yelling fart face for four minutes. What the hell happened to the smart, sophisticated jokes that SNL was known for when Dennis Miller was on it?” RedEye’s ratings topped 200k viewers for the first time in a year thanks to coverage the commentary got. A more favorable review of John McCain’s appearance in the Ben Affleck / David show was met with RedEye viewers accusing Gutfeld of flip-flopping and bowing to corporate pressure.
Is it me or does Brolin look a lot like Adam DeVine in the Surprise Sue sketch? He has one of those faces where he looks very different from one moment to another – in the MacGruber wig he reminded me so much of Richard Dean Anderson.
The Narc School song reminds me of something too, but I can’t quite figure out what. This is a solid sketch, but my favorite part is Will using his office threesome guy voice.
In theory, I love seeing such a backstage pileup, with different guests intersecting as Lorne watches and reacts. Unfortunately the people involved make it difficult for me to laugh…Mark Wahlberg joking about beating people up is particularly difficult to laugh at. Given Palin’s complete fade to irrelevance, I can’t be as put off by her appearances here as if, say, she’d been elected President, but I mostly just skimmed her part here and on Update. It was more interesting to read about all the behind the scenes aspects. (the Hollywood Reporter link is down right now but they talk about how Lorne coaxed Alec Baldwin to appear, how Tina did not want to actually appear with Palin for fear of being seen as endorsing her, and how Tina suggested they keep Palin backstage most of the time in case the audience booed her).
This was the highest-rated SNL episode since Nancy Kerrigan’s in 1994.
I think that having such a heavily political cold open followed by a meandering and extremely political and fatiguing monologue from Brolin (with everything going on at this point in 2008 I’m not sure how many people wanted to see W impressions or reminders of what an awful President he was), this episode got off on a terrible foot – probably one of the worst. In that instance I can appreciate what they were doing by pivoting to familiar characters…although I will admit that, even though I am generally fond of Sue (and I got a cheap laugh from her having the lobster on her face), having such a nervous, hysterical sketch right after the other stuff wasn’t the best idea. The first real winner of the night would probably be the Suze Orman reprisal.
I don’t know if I’d go all the way to ***** but I share your enjoyment of the Fart Face sketch. And for all the lore of how unpopular it was, they had several followups, so clearly it didn’t die a complete death. I have to enjoy Will Forte in full freakout mode (especially since we didn’t get enough of it on SNL – this rivals the superb appearance he made on I Think You Should Leave), and this is also an important sketch in establishing the mania in Bill Hader’s work which he has mostly kept at bay up to this point but will tap further and further into for the rest of his run. Brolin is also very good – at times he reminds me of John Laroquette.
Brolin’s best work is in the foliage sketch – the cheap rape joke at the end (which basically suggests they had little faith in viewers) does bring this down for me, but his performance is intense and charismatic enough in its own right to drown out the lazy conclusion.
I mostly zoned out of Fred’s musical piece – I get why people enjoy it, but I feel like SNL already did this type of stuff better with the Rutles and it just comes across to me as Fred no longer being able to properly connect with the rest of the show. If the rest of the show were stronger around this time, then I might be more in the mood to enjoy, but it’s not, so you just have this dead spot on the screen in an episode that already had momentum problems as it was.
I think Seth has said the I’m No Angel sketch is one of his favorite SNL moments. I’m not quite as enamored as he is, but I can see why – it’s a great victory lap for Amy after contributing so much to the show, especially in her last few seasons. It’s fearless and fun, and a good way to close the door.
The MacGruber runner is another example of their willingness to not only try different ideas, but also different tones, in a very honest way. Similar to the gay son sketch, they are fine with going down into the dirt – it can be hard to watch, but Forte is brilliant, and the grime in some ways makes certain moments, like the ping pong bit, more morbidly, guiltily hilarious.
Overall I am still not really connecting to this season the way many seem to, but the good parts of this episode were strong and what I will enjoy in the show while we still have this cast and some of the more competent writing.
Forte seemed to be saving a lot of his best screaming freakouts for the Tim & Eric Show around this time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-m7mBSw-5k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J33HdkLjw6Q
Up there with Odenkirk, as one of the funniest comedy screamers, SNL really should’ve taken more advantage of it, (especially in these later seasons when it seemed like they were really cutting back on the “Weird Will Forte sketch of the week”) when he committed to them, he really fucking committed, to the point where I worried for his health, especially in the Zell Miller appearances.. that fucking forehead vain, man! Though he did at least go out with a bang with maybe the all time best scream fest with the Potato Chip sketch.
Funny thing I just remembered after seeing the goodnights screencap was Casey getting defensive on the old A Special Thing.com message board — (any other comedy fan boomers remember that place? Used to be a cool comedy news site & message board where fans interacted with a lot of comics back in the pre-social media made them more accessible. Particularly remember Patton Oswalt had a great Q&A thread that was up for years. ) — when a bunch of people made fun of her for looking way too eager to hug Sarah Palin right at the start of the goodnights. I think her reply was something to the effect like she jumped in for the hug because she was afraid the rest of the cast was gonna ice her out. I kinda remember thinking it looked that way, but last time I saw the rerun I think I did see the longer goodnights and it did look like Amy and Tina were eventually chatting her up.
Oh yeah, for to say I recognize pretty much all of the stills they’re parodying (Amy and Casey as Tegan & Sara, Will’s dead-on casting as the guy in Kraftwerk) in the Fred sketch, whats the one with Kristen, I feel like thats a famous picture I’ve seen before. Wanna say Kim & Thurston from Sonic Youth?
@RR I have to admit I had wondered that about Casey but I assumed it was for the reason she gave (thanks for telling us as I’d never heard about that board). Considering how she struggled to fit in at SNL it makes sense to me she would want to try to try to help someone else who clearly felt the same way – it just plays awkwardly on TV.
I feel bad for them making Darrell hang around still, if I remember right there were a number of episodes where he made just one bit part appearance like this where he would stick out like a sore thumb. Especially gets bad once the election ends and his McCain isn’t really needed anymore and basically has nothing to do for the rest of the season.
Man Bill still had a nice full head of hair here. Couple of years later it starts receding big time and he starts balding up top a little
Five stars for Fart Face makes me happy. I love that sketch, I think it’s hilarious. So there.
This episodes was one of the first times I remember being aware of what Saturday Night Live was- I remember seeing the clip of Tina & Sarah Palin from the opening being played over some morning news show when I was at a dentist’s appointment on the following Monday. It seemed like a big deal to me at the time but I’m not sure how much it really was. I guess that cameo was hyped though.
When I finally watched this episode last year (I’m a new fan), Surprise Sue and Tim Calhoun made the biggest impressions on me. Having only seen a few of Kristen Wiig’s performances before, I was impressed with her physicality in the Sue sketch and how much she committed to that role. The window-jumping part in particular left me impressed. I’ve liked her a lot ever since. On the other hand, I had no familiarity with Will Forte and as soon as I saw the Tim Calhoun bit, I knew I had to look this guy up, because it made me laugh so hard. (I also assumed it was an impression of an existing politician I’d never heard of…)
Oh, and MacGruber was really funny too. As my first exposure to it, I didn’t know it was supposed be a runner, so the first sketch left me thinking “that’s it?” and then I enjoyed it even more when it came back.
The Mark Wahlberg cameos were somehow funnier to me not knowing the context. It does seem kind of lazy now that I’ve seen the actual sketch it was referencing.
“Fall Foliage” is a weird sketch that I really don’t know what to make of. The ending felt uncomfortable to say the least.
I didn’t know just when we’d reach the end of Tim Calhoun. I’m sorry to see him go, since he is, in my book, one of the most consistently strong and entertaining Update figures, and on more than occasion, among the sole highlights of an episode. I suppose it makes sense – by 2008, politics had already become too absurd for the conceit of the character to work as much as it once had, and, as you’ve previously mentioned, the character began to rely more on wordplay than on the best elements (a modest, quiet figure who opens his mouth and reveals that he is a headcase). Better to leave on a positive than to be regurgitated all the way to oblivion just because you’re a show pet.
Will did revive Tim Calhoun on Fallon’s show 4 years ago, complete with “disbelieving” reactions from Fallon just in case we didn’t get the joke. Starts off slow and then gets very very crazy and very very good as we progress. And someone in the audience says, noticeably, “Tim Calhoun!” toward the end, which makes me smile. (the truth is if he ran today he would probably have a very strong chance…)
Wow, thanks for posting that, never knew he revived Tim Calhoun before! One cool thing about Fallon and Seth’s shows being produced by Lorne and all is they’ll sometimes revive old SNL characters on the show whenever one of Jimmy’s old castmates is around. They recently revived an old Jarrett’s Room with Horatio not long ago during of the first at home shows.
Yeah, I’m glad they feel comfortable enough to not only revive SNL material but also clearly enjoy talking about the show. I’ve already said this too many times as it is but I liked that Jarret’s Room more than I did the ones they did back when they were in the cast. Stuff like that, or Tim, or Second Chance Theatre are all a great way to keep that era going and to add new dimensions. With everything going on these days I appreciate the diversion, so I hope they will continue.
I’m sorry, but I hated the Fart Face sketch. It was one-note and repetitive. One of the worst sketches I have seen on the show.
I think the most hilarious part about Tim Calhoun is that considering the current state of American politics, he doesn’t seem that outlandish or absurd as a political candidate anymore! He also kinda reminds me of Ted Cruz with the greasy hair and lack of charisma except waaaay funnier.
Stooge mentioned this episode received high ratings in part due to Sarah Palin’s cameo. Does anyone know what the most watched episode of SNL is?
The Florian Schneider/Will Forte resemblance was not lost on me in 2008.
Oh yeah, Will and Wiigy are all over this episode; great for the former, questionable for the latter. I guess this is where two troubling trends become the norm in this SNL era: cameo orgies and over-dependence on Kristen. Regardless, that shouldn’t take away from all the good sketches (give or take Sue) in this episode. Brolin was a solid host, and though it took awhile, I’ve almost come around on “Fart Face.”
I mainly remember the Tina Fey as Palin and the real thing almost meeting each, Amy’s very visible pregnant belly in that one sketch, and Amy’s Palin rap in front of the real thing! I might have also remembered many of the recurring bits. I think I remember enjoying this one quite a bit…
Here’s my review of the musical performances.
Chasing Pavements
— Wow she looks so young here, and very different with the bangs
— Adele’s voice of course needs no additional praise from me. What more is there to say about such a talent? Other than it’s impressive to hear her perform totally live and do just as well as on her studio and recorded appearances.
— The band here is top notch, as I would expect. Great that they have a pretty large string section in addition to the rock instruments.
— Awww I think she blushed after the song ended. Adorable live moment right there.
— Not much more to say here other than it’s an extremely professional, technically sound, tasteful performance, but what else would you expect? It’s frickin Adele.
STARS: ****1/2
Cold Shoulder
— I like that this one is a bit more up-tempo
— Nice half-time feel on the bridge, deftly executed by Adele and her band
— Acoustics are great here, with good separation between the instruments. Can hear the strings especially well.
— Another well performed song, and again it is super cute to see Adele’s bashful and relieved reaction once the song is over.
— As absurd as some of the ticket prices were for Adele’s recent Las Vegas residency, at least it’s for someone with loads of talent and excellent taste, something that was present from her very earliest days as this show proves.
STARS: ****1/2
I recall a Tina Fey interview where it was mentioned she refused to be in camera with Palin.
love the Bill story regarding fart face, being surprised it made the show and being after update. Josh said before they went on “Well fellas,let’s shut these fuckers up”
this exemplifies what I love most about Bull is his total commitment in every performance.
it was the Ian Rubbish sketch that inspired Documentary Now.
I always assumed Mark made an ad lib saying say hi to your stepmother to Josh cause his mum had died